News

Fleet member Russell Pepper has created Dundee’s first ever street art trail bringing life to old doors throughout the city. There are currently 9 artworked doors by 9 different local artists, their locations are shown on the map below.

Russell is currently working on his PHD and isn’t from a creative background but after a few conversations with artists and designers in Fleet he decided to make it happen:
“Everyone has been incredibly positive about the project – literally every shopkeeper I’ve spoken to has loved the idea and wanted to have their door painted! It’s incredibly encouraging and Dundee is clearly crying out for street art – it’s just a shame we can’t paint them all.”

New doors are being added to the trail all the time, if you want to find out more and see the full trail you can follow Open/Close Dundee on facebook or instagram.

Seven outstanding business women have been honoured at the recent Scottish Women in Business (SWIB) inaugural ‘Celebrating Women’ Awards, receiving one of five awards that had been chosen from a shortlist of 15 finalists.

We are proud to announce that Fleet member Clare Cooper, along with her sister Olivia Robertson, won the Innovator Award for their business The Home Straight & Elli (Assisted Living Technology) Ltd.

Olivia and Clare founded The Home Straight in 2012 – Scotland’s first social enterprise offering moving, downsizing and ageing in place solutions for older people. Drawing from their experience from their first business, they went on to set up Elli (Assisted Living Technology) Ltd in 2016 with the vision of increasing the independence and well-being of older people by creating beautifully designed, high quality Assisted Living Technology products. Currently on the Scottish Enterprise Growth Pipeline, Elli’s launch range will include a toilet surround, shower stools, grab rails and chair raisers – all products that are generally needed together once a person’s mobility begins to reduce.

Clare explained, “We feel very honoured, a little overwhelmed. This is the first award we have ever won! This is going to be great for us for attracting investment and really developing the growth of the business. We pull together on our previous career strengths to make sure our products really work for our customers.”

Drawing on the designs of the inaugural Dundee Design Festival in 2016, Fleet Collective has designed a new bright bold ident for this year’s festival scheduled to start 24th – 29th May 2017.

A predominantly blue and yellow design reflects this year’s theme ‘the factory floor’, as Fleet Collective designer Lyall Bruce wanted to use a colour palette that was representative of this environment. Picking up on the yellows, reds and blues of industrial machinery, signage and workwear.

Having designed the inaugural identity, Lyall explored how to evolve this, saying “This approach led to an interesting experiment in typography, looking at how we could build a logo mark that represented this year’s festival using the fewest shapes possible and still remain legible.”

Fleet Collective member Ed Broughton of Bonnie Brae, along with Arts Producer Claire Dufour, has launched a new project in Dundee, Hatch, which aims to bring people together to create short performance pieces.

Hatch is open to all disciplines and invites people to collaborate with others and create new work that will be showed to an audience. Hatch begins with a workshop and sharing day on Saturday 10th September from 2-5pm at Dundee Rep Theatre, for anyone who writes, performs, makes or creates in any way. It is free to attend but has limited places, you can sign up here. Prior experience of the performing arts is not necessary.

Hatch seeks to engage with the city’s creative and cultural communities – literary, theatre, dance, art, design, film, tech to name a few – and then to promote them to wider audiences. This autumn and winter, Hatch is appealing to all those across the city who want to spark new creative collaborations with the aim to produce short, original and accessible performances for their inaugural event in November.

Ed says “We are looking for anyone and everyone to join in and make things that they hadn’t considered before. Maybe you write poetry but it only ever stays in your notebook? What if, by putting your head together with someone else, you could take those ideas and transform them into something that can be performed to an audience using actors or dancers. Maybe you’re a performer looking for someone new to work with? What if, by meeting someone new who can spark some ideas, it propels you to make a moving and engaging piece that’s close to your heart. That’s what Hatch will facilitate and then ultimately produce for the stage in a free event that’s open to everyone in the city.”

Claire Dufour, Hatch’s producer says: “The potential amongst those living in Dundee and Tayside to create new and interesting work is huge. Quite often the different creative communities in Dundee don’t cross paths, but we know we can advance the performing arts in our city through enabling emerging artists, groups and collectives to connect and collaborate with each other. To then show their work to an audience in a safe and appreciative environment will be eye opening and exciting for everyone involved.”

This event is kindly hosted and supported by Dundee Rep Theatre. Joe Douglas, Associate Artistic Director, Dundee Rep: “Dundee Rep is committed to supporting artists in and around the city – we want to reach out to the enormous creative potential here in Dundee. We are delighted to be able to support the first Hatch event and to seeing the great new work that will no doubt hatch from it. We look forward to welcoming you.”

Hatch’s first workshop on Saturday 10th September offers the opportunity to mix and match your interests, ideas and skills with each other. This will inspire attendees to create new existing pieces of performing arts, which may include dance, music, opera, theatre and musical theatre, magic, illusion, mime, spoken word, puppetry, circus arts, performance art, recitation and public speaking. As part of the afternoon, there will be performances of work that have been specially created for the event, using the Hatch methodology.

Ed Broughton concurred, “We want writers of all kinds to come along to the workshop – anyone who’s ever put pen to paper. We want performers of all kinds, we want directors, we want anyone who has ever had an idea! There’s no such thing as a bad idea!”

Claire Dufour said “We believe in collaboration, experimentation, mutual support and accessibility of the arts and Dundee is the perfect place for this to take wings and fly.”

Join Ed and Claire on Saturday 10th September from 2-5pm at Dundee Rep Theatre to start your collaborative exploration in performing arts. Mix and match your aspirations and expertise to make new amazing work in collaboration with other disciplines. These new works will then be produced and put on as an evening of small, modular performances, launching in November. Hatch’s first workshop is free and open to everyone, please sign up here.

Ryan McLeod who runs Slurpp, is starting a new and exciting kind of internship, called ‘Smash It Out’. It starts on the 13th of June and here’s a little more about it:

“Slurpp is taking on it’s very first intern in the form of Interaction Design Graduate Rich Cahill. Unfortunately he’s not staying in Dundee but is off to London to work with IDEO after the summer. But before he heads down South he’s coming in to do a weeks paid internship. A week doesn’t sound like a lot of time but this isn’t any normal internship. We’re going to start on the Monday with absolutely nothing and then by the Friday afternoon we’re going to launch something!”

“It’s about time the format of internships and apprenticeships got shook up. This format focuses you in on a single goal under a bit of time pressure and forces you to make decisions and progress quickly. It’s not about producing a fully polished finished product. It’s about stepping through the design process quickly to go from idea to design to prototype to something to share with the world. Neither of us have any idea what that’ll be or look like but that’s all part of the fun. We’ll be documenting the process all week on twitter and on the Slurpp blog keep an eye out from the 13th of June.”

For more details you can read the full article about the internship programme here.

Dundee Design Festival has a brand new look. Created by Fleet Collective, the inspiration for the pattern design and colour palette was taken from Dundee’s skyline and industrial sized printing warehouse where the Dundee Design Festival takes place in May.

“Dundee often gets represented very literally in design – we wanted to create an abstract design for the city from the viewpoint of the building where the festival will be based at West Ward Works.We wanted to make something that would work across scale and be a base for experimentation leading up to and during the festival – something that people could explore in different ways.

The colour palette was based around the 4 colour process used for printing and references what the building was used for in the past – a printing warehouse for DC Thomson Publishing.

The idea came along when I was inside the festival venue looking out of the massive windows at all of the different shapes that make up the cityscape. Without being too literal about it the shapes are representative of the history of Dundee but the pixels and digital design are a good representation of Dundee as it is today. The pattern is very specific to Dundee but even more specific to the building that the festival is taking place in.” said Designer, Lyall Bruce of Fleet Collective.

The festival runs over four days between 25th – 28th May and will include a large scale exhibition, talks, demonstrations and events. For more information you can visit the amazing website created by two other Fleeple: Ryan McLeod (madebyslurpp.com) and Grant Richmond (grant.codes) visit www.dundeedesignfestival.com

Fleet Collective is very pleased to have been working working with Channel 4 to develop the website for their new games publishing platform All4Games. This projectbuilds upon Channel 4’s strong success in the mobile gaming market with games published based on existing C4 properties.

All4Games is a platform to generate new properties for Channel 4 based on original concepts by game developers and will harness the experience C4 have in promoting and developing good concepts to make them stand out in a crowded marketplace. The website was developed to explain this approach to game developers in an interesting and innovative way.

Fleet Collective is all about collaboration between members. This happens daily with folk in Fleet seeking design or tech advice from each other, or by complementing each other’s skills on particular projects.

Sometimes Fleet members will put their heads together and come up with something new. Something that wouldn’t have existed without having an open, sharing, supportive and collaborative environment to work in.

Since the start of the year, Fleet Collective members Bonnie Brae Productions and Mat Ploski have been working together to pool their video production skills to create a new live streaming service called Stream Scotland.

Combining their years of expertise in filming live events with new live editing tech and 4G capabilities, Stream Scotland are able to stream live events globally with multiple camera angles – just like what you might see on the telly – and have everything recorded and put online for archiving and future reference.

This Pecha Kucha also has Fleet Collective member Grant Richmond speaking.

Ed Broughton commented “Everything’s global these days, the idea of not attending something because of geographic location is a thing of the past. This set up can help with any accessibility issues an event or conference may have too.”

Mat Ploski said “It’s amazing what you can do with a multitude of cables and black boxes.”

moovii create animations and videos that will become an essential part of your business. We will work alongside you to help promote your business, your brand or your product.We keep our ideas fresh, we evolve and grow with every project we undertake no matter how big or how small.

We are always learning and always adapting to our surroundings and we aim to help you solve problems and communicate your ideas in a fun and engaging way.

We animate, we design, we produce, we direct, we film, we collaborate, we mix it all together and we create exciting, memorable and unique work.

Visit moovii.com and find out how we can help promote your business using video and animation marketing. We will work alongside you to help put a strategy in place and ensure you have a professionally produced video or animation. We will guide you through the process and market your video online to ensure maximum exposure.

Long term Fleet member Bonnie Brae Productions has been working with Forestry Commission Scotland to highlight the importance of our woods and forests, including awareness raising for their “Woods In & Around Towns” wellbeing and accessibility programme.

Scotland’s forests and woodlands are a vital natural asset. If they’re looked after well, they bring huge benefits for Scotland’s economy, people and environment. That’s where the Forestry Commission come in. Their core purpose is to deliver multiple benefits by promoting the sustainable management of trees, woods and forests across Scotland.

Bonnie Brea’s new film helps promote the Woodlands in and Around Towns (WIAT) programme, which is tackling the barriers people face to visiting and benefitting from woodlands regularly. The programme focuses on the location, accessibility and management of urban woodlands, to encourage more use from local people.

Forests are at risk from tree pests and diseases. These can dramatically affect the health of trees, upsetting the delicate ecosystem balance and devastating large areas of woodland. Pests and diseases hitch a ride in mud and debris on shoes, paws and tyres, ending up in new forests. Here, they can spread rapidly in environments with no natural resilience.

Excellent work on helping to preserve our woodlands now and for future generations!

Fleet Collective is a creative playground full of talented people making awesome things, sometimes on their own and sometimes as a group. We exist to develop better work, to help others make better work and to create better results, all the time making our world better.

To see what we can do visit our Working For You page. If you have a project you’d like to discuss with us or have any other queries then please get in touch.

Thanks to Kirsty Maguire, and the handful of architects like her, the future looks a little brighter.

Within the past few days Perth and Kinross Council voted to give the go-ahead to an eco-house she has designed which is helping pioneer new ways of living which combine sustainability with comfort. (more…)

Designer Cavan Convery has worked with the photographic collective Document Scotland to present an exhibition that explores Scotland’s social landscapes at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. Collaborating with the four photographers and the curator he helped establish the best way to display their 75 works, personalising each member’s diverse area of interest while maintaining a unity throughout the exhibition.

The exhibition, Document Scotland: The Ties That Bind, takes place one year after the Scottish Referendum. While the work touches on the political landscape around the Referendum, the images do not affirm any one position, but seek to portray a multiplicity of views that portray the complex challenges and subtle nuances surrounding the larger debate.

The collectives work has been published in various international magazines and newspapers, in addition to featuring in exhibitions around the UK. They are passionate about documentary photography and are committed to photographing Scotland at this pivotal moment in history.

Dundee Voices is a media content initiative run by Fleet members Dylan Drummond of Son of the Sea and Kathryn Rattray of Twisted Flax that explores the culture of Dundee through its citizens voices. (more…)

Fleet member Ryan McLeod, along with Grant MacLennan and David Brown have reinvented how custom t-shirt printing works and taken out all the hassle.

At instee.co you upload your design, set your profit margin and then share out your t-shirt. No minimum order, unlimited colours, high quality t-shirts and they deal with all the sales, printing and delivery you just collect your profit.

Bonnie Brae Productions is Ed Broughton & Nikki Steel, who both have over ten years video production experience under their belts. Having worked for the BBC & a variety of production companies on both corporate and broadcast programmes, Nikki and Ed set up independently in 2010.

Lyall Bruce is a designer who works on projects from identity design through to mobile app and web site layouts. Lyall is also the co-founder of Fleet Collective and NEoN Digital Arts Festival and is also a director of Creative Dundee.

Tap dancing robotic shoes, music, movies and a city centre sty full of human pigs – this year’s NEoN digital arts festival gleefully romped between the mind-boggling and the bizarre.

As one of the partners in this annual showcase for Dundee’s world-renowned computer generated and technology driven arts, Fleet Collective believes the festival has now established itself as an important feature in Tayside’s cultural landscape.